A survey by Liberia’s National Public Health Institute, which heads the country’s COVID-19 fight, has revealed that only between 10% and 15% of people in overcrowded slums can afford to purchase face masks.
The vast majority of people in those informal settlements are more concerned about what to eat than what to wear on their faces, according to the institute’s head Dr Mosoka Fallah.
The findings haven’t come as a surprise in an impoverished country where many people live on less than $1 (£0.80) a day.
The government’s much-publicised decision to distribute food to vulnerable populations in places like those surveyed is still in final planning stages, with some obvious challenges.